Many of Halifax’s account customers are feeling hard done by because of the bank’s decision to shake up the way it charges for overdrafts. On one hand the system is certainly simpler. Instead of charging for each unauthorised transaction and levying separate interest charges, the bank will now charge a flat fee for each day the account is overdrawn. Interest and transaction charges will be abolished.

If the overdraft is authorised, the fee will be £1 a day up to £2,500 and £2 a day on larger sums. If however the borrowing is unauthorised, the charge rises to £5 a day. The new system will commence on December 6th. Although some customers will be better off, most will be worse off. Those who regularly use an authorised overdraft to borrow small amounts are among the biggest losers.

To read more on bank charges and to see some examples go to telegraph.co.uk.

First time buyers are faced with a brighter future in 2009, according to the Halifax First-time buyer affordability review.

With the house price to earnings ratio improving dramatically in the last 18 months, giving first time buyers the chance to take advantage of the low house prices.

In November 2008 the ratio was at the lowest level in five years at 4.56 from July 2007’s high of 5.84.
With the figures this low means that the numbers of properties in the UK that have become affordable have increased more than three times during 2008.

Although in particular the first time buyers in the Midlands and the South of England are benefiting the most. Scotland has also seen a huge increase of affordable homes for average earners in more than two thirds of local authorities.

House prices are likely to continue to fall in 2009 according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and the number of new buyer enquiries have risen to their highest level since October 2006, these figures showing that it’s a great time to get on the property ladder as the trend is set to continue throughout 2009.

This come after reports last week from Hometrack, the information group revealed that house prices have dropped by 8.7 percent in the UK in the last 12 months.

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Halifax part of the HBOS group (LON:HBOS) that are merging with Lloyds TSB (LON:LLOY) and Nationwide Britain’s largest building society have announced that they will not be forecasting the UK property prices, this outlines how difficult it is for predictions to be made at the moment.

Both Nationwide and Halifax usually publish annual house price forecast but we will not see any forecasts for 2009.

However Halifax has blamed the merger with Lloyds TSB as to why they will not be publishing their 2009 house price forecast.

Both banks monthly house price indices have shown declines in 2008, and both Halifax and Nationwide have said they will continue these monthly reports in 2009.

The bank’s decision is backed by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) which have said that they any exercise to predict next year’s property prices would be pointless.

Source: beacon

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HBOS (LON:HBOS) group Halifax and Bank of Scotland will keep their brand names after the merger with Lloyds TSB (LON:LLOY) has gone ahead the bank announced.

Bank of Scotland will primarily be the brand used in Scotland, whilst Halifax will run along with Lloyds TSB brand in England and Wales. The new Lloyds Banking Group will become the largest branch network in the UK.

The merger deal is set to complete on the January 19, Lloyds have said no decisions will be made until then regarding any branch closures.

Lloyds have also said they are undecided regarding the number of registrations it holds with the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and if they will reduce them.

As part of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, savers are only protected for the first £50,000 deposited with each holder of an FSA license. At presents if a customer holds both a Bank of Scotland Account and a Lloyds they are fully protected no both accounts by the FSA.

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Nationwide Building Society said last night it would cut its Standard Variable Rate SVR by 0.67 and waive the collar clause in its existing tracker mortgage rates. Nationwide have vowed that they will pass any future cuts on in full. This now put Nationwide’s Standard Variable Rate SVR at 4 percent.

By Nationwide ignoring the collar (floor) clause, it means that the UK’s biggest Building Society has passed on the full rate reduction to its customers on existing tracker mortgage products that are pegged to the Bank of England Base Rate. Nationwide had a collar clause in its terms stating if the Bank of England base interest rate falls below 2.75 percent they can opt out of passing the fall rate cut on.

This follows the move by Halifax; they also said customers that have a tracker mortgage with them will also benefit from the whole rate cut made by the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee. However Halifax is only reducing their SVR by 0.25 percent, 0.75 percent less than what the government has urged banks to pass on.

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Halifax, which is part of HBOS and Britain’s biggest lender, announced that it will only be passing 0.25 percent of the 1 percent Bank of England Base Rate cut onto it customers that are on variable rate deals.

Halifax Standard Variable Rate (SVR) will reduce to 4.75 percent after the 0.25 percent cut from January 1. Halifax said that it had “balanced the interest of its customers with the commercial imperative of managing its business in a sustainable and prudent fashion”.

The Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee reduced the base interest rate today by a further 1 percent following the cut in November for 1.5 percent. The UK base interest rate is now at 2 percent, being the lowest level for 57 years.

Source: timesonline

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The Financial Services Authority have warned banks and building societies such as Halifax which is part of HBOS and Nationwide that if they use their small print in the terms of their tracker mortgage contracts to avoid passing on this week’s inevitable rate cut they will find themselves in hot water.

Halifax has an option not to pass on any cuts below 3 percent, which would mean if you had a tracker mortgage with a 0.8 percent over base, and the Bank of England Base rate was cut a further 1 percent to 2 percent, Halifax are within their rights to still charge you 3 percent and not 2.8 percent.

Nationwide also had a clause in their tracker rate mortgages that states they will not follow the base rate lower than 2.75 percent. Basically these terms in a contract are called collar rates. Many borrowers were unaware of the clause.

Many economists predict the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee will cut the rate by as much as 1 percent taking the benchmark lending rate to 2 percent.

Nationwide building society as of yesterday are offering a tracker product with a collar of 1 percent, but before you get to excited the deal is pegged at 1.99 percent above base rate, which would mean if the bank of England cut the rate by 1 percent as predicted you would be paying a rate of 3.99 percent.

Source: Guardian

Halifax owned by HBOS has joined several other banks in increasing their margins on their Tracker mortgage products which has caused concerns with consumer groups and the government. Halifax pulled all its Tracker deals just before the surprise 1.5 percent interest rate cut by the Bank of England last Thursday.

Previous to the cut, Halifax pegged its tracker 1.04 percent over the BoE Base rate, now the tracker rate has been pegged 2.14 percent above the BoE base rate doubling the margin for the banks.

This is not the only change Halifax has made to its mortgage deals, you will now need 25 percent deposit if you want to go for a tracker mortgage, it’s highly likely that other banks will follow suit considering Halifax is the largest mortgage lender in the market, this could see the taxpayer having little to show for bailing out the British banking system.

Source: Financialadvice

British banks Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) including subsidiary NatWest joined Halifax who are owned by HBOS and agreed today to pass on the whole 1.5 percent cut onto their Standard Variable Rate (SVR) following the Bank of England’s surprise decision yesterday to cut the base rate by 1.5 percent to 3 percent. RBS new SVR will be 5.19 percent and Halifax new SVR will be 5 percent both rates will be applied December 1.

Nationwide also announced they would pass the full 1.5 percent rate cut on taking its SVR to 4.69 percent. The decision came after the Government stepped in and put pressure on the banks to cut their interest rates to help millions of homeowners by reducing some mortgage rates.

However the lenders have said the decision to cut the rate was based on the fall in Libor, this is the rate that banks lend to each other and which has been the reason why banks have been reluctant to pass the interest rate cut on.

With Libor dropping more than 1 percent to 4.496 percent from 5.561 percent today it bridged the gap slightly between the Libor rate and the base rate, although the Libor rate is still nearly 1.5 percent higher than the BOE official interest rate.

Source: Independent

House price are losing over £900 a week, making the value of property in the UK the same as they were three years ago, shocking data from the Halifax who are the country’s largest lender have reported that the average house price is now £168,176 which is £33,000 less than when it peaked in August last year.

Property values are falling at the fastest pace since the 1930s according to the Halifax house price survey, last month alone £4,000 was knocked of the average house price that’s £923 a week.

Economist forecast bleaker news saying they believe they will continue to fall. Economist at Capital Economics Seema Shah pointed out that the economic downturn has only just got going, and they expect the recession will last for at least two years and as it deepens it will set off a sharp rise in unemployment.

Repossessed homes are expected to rise to 45,000 before the year is out; pushing house prices lower and increase in mortgage holders into negative equity.

Source: Telegraph